


Malleable and Warm

by crisantemu



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: (and not just any scarf! A VERY special scarf!!), Cuddling & Snuggling, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Other, Scarves, Touch-Starved, Touching, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-13
Updated: 2019-08-13
Packaged: 2020-08-20 23:17:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,891
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20236000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crisantemu/pseuds/crisantemu
Summary: “Hum… can you, please remove your-- 'arm' from me now?”Ai blinks at him, dumbfounded.“Huh? But you’re shivering!”---Yusaku Fujiki loves the winter; but even he sometimes can complain about how cold his modest little flat can get on those cold dark nights. And of course, because destiny seems to love torturing him, his new companion (and hostage) has finally obtained his real body and now he's even more annoying than usual. Wonderful. As if a single eyeball wasn't enough of an earful...However, Yusaku finds out that whenever Ai is envolved there's always new surprises. And this body of his isn't an exception. Who knows; maybe it also has the solution for Yusaku's problem.[Set in-between episodes 12 and 13 | Written for the Summer & Winter Gift Exchange event]





	Malleable and Warm

It was raining, as it has been for many days now that winter has finally come. Today however, the weather looks colder and the sky looks endless, a dark cloak covering the entire city, no stars or moon to shine through. All the light coming from the single street lamp in the middle of the street and the soft glow of the laptop.

Yusaku blinks once, slowly, as he presses his cheek against the cold glass of the window, watching the droplets run down the glass in slits. His knees were pressed against his chest and on his hands he held a mug of hot chocolate. His laptop sits in front of his bare feet, the same lines of code he has been trying to decode for _ days _glaring up at him.

He believes a pause is earned.

He’s tired. His features as cold and unbendable as the weather outside, his stiff fingers drumming against the heated porcelain trying to warm his cold hands.

Yusaku always liked this season; the nights were longer and it brought him a feeling of ease to hear the droplets gently hit the window of his cheap flat, those were his only company as he worked himself throughout most of them. And the days were boring, just like how he liked them to be. Perfect to sleep.

Yusaku takes a sip of his coffee, he normally prefers it black as he never really had much of a sweet tooth, however as he found out not so long ago, sweets seem to make him sleep better. He removes the porcelain from him lips and licks briefly at his lips, unfamiliar with the sugary and cream that got caught up there. Yusaku blinks again. He’s already feeling the sleep come in. Green eyes briefly scan the room and finally land on the sleeping A.I. sitting in the small counter next to his bed. Yusaku makes a small sound and wonders, for a short second, if something like Ai also needed sleep. Yusaku still found all os what Revolver said in their last duel hard to believe.

Yusaku closes his eyes, bringing his hands to his head as he lets out a long sigh. Well, there goes his idea of a peaceful night’s rest. Amazing how even when silent and sleeping Ai still made him frustrated and sick and _ tired. _

All that work of pursuing the leader of Hanoi for answers and _ nothing. _All he ended up getting was more questions, Ai’s real body and a headache. He groans, that really isn’t much of a fair trade considering all the stuff he and Kusanagi had to pull through during the whole year.

“We’re getting closer.” He tells himself, “Closer...” Yusaku repeats, the rest of the sentence getting interrupted by a long yawn.

Well. That’s his cue; he’ll just turn off his laptop and call work for today, get under the covers and hope for a dreamless night. His mouth still tastes like sweets but Yusaku guesses, that really isn’t that bad. He’ll just wash his teeth tomorrow. Screw it, he thinks to himself, _ just once _ isn’t _ always. _

So Yusaku does just that.

He turns off the laptop and slaps it close, pushing it away. He finishes his coffee and then places the empty mug by the feet of the bed so Roboppy can pick it up the next morning.

Yusaku pulls the covers and slips under them, he was already dressed up in his pajamas so that was one less concern at least. The night is awfully cold and Yusaku curls up, pulling the blanket closer around himself, teeth clattering.

For one short second, he wishes something - _ someone - _would at least keep him warm on those lonely winter nights he is so fond off.

Yusaku wakes up to the sound of soft buzzing and laughter filling the small room.

He cracks one eye open, and sees the tiny roomba drifting away with his empty cup on tiny hands. Roboppy looks up giving a tiny chuckle and Yusaku briefly follows her line of sight to see Ai perched up on top of his Duel Disk, flexing his new body and… was he _ that _toned the last lime?

...and is _ that _ a _ speedo _he's wearing?!

He must be dreaming. He didn't even _ knew _ it was possible for him to have _ these _kind of dreams!

Yusaku almost pinched himself but then he feels just how _ gross _his mouth feels. Unless his dreams were realist enough to the point where he has bad breath from all that coffee last night, he doubts this is a dream in the first place.

That conclusion fills Yusaku with both relief and dread.

Ai in a speedo, is A Thing That Exists. Yusaku wishes he never woke up.

_ "Ah!" _ Roboppy happily beeps, turning to address Yusaku as soon it noticed he was awake; “Good morning, master Yusaku!”

Ai makes a sound akin to a shirek and his “macho” appearance deflates like a balloon that was poked by a needle. Yusaku would’ve shot Ai one of his signature icy-death-glares for his obnoxiousness that early in the morning but the whole situation was just borderline comical.

“G-Good morning, Yusaku-chan!” The now once-again tiny, lean Ignis squeaks, arms awkwardly positioned in front of him as if Ai was debating dropping them at his sides or wave at the only human in the room. In the end he places one hand on his hip, the other raised up with a single finger pointing up, “You’re up early. School starts in two hours!”

"Morning…" he gives the tiny roomba a tired smile which suddenly becomes a scroll as he turns to look at the Ignis, "I’m always up early."

“Huh. No. You are up early because you _ never _ slept in the first place. Seriously Yusaku-chan, I’ve only been with you for a week and _ this _ is the first time I actually see you sleep in _ your own bed. _ Are you _ sure _you’re ven a human?!”

Yusaku presses his eyes closed and counts to ten before responding, “Yes.”

Ai raises both of his arms then as if he’s about to argue further more but Yusaku is quick to interrupt him.

“And yes, I suppose it’s still too early for school. In that case I’ll just go over Kusanagi’s and finish breaking down SOL’s firewall.”

“You say that like it’s as easy as buying groceries.” Ai crosses his arms, and his cheeks expand in a way one could say he was pouting. “Trust me bud, I’ve been trying to get in for _ five. years. _ And all I’ve got from all those tries was my ass almost getting caught. I figured it wasn’t worth the risk, besides I was just an _ eyeball _at that time! I couldn’t even persuade all those security A.I.s with my beauty!”

Yusaku raises an eyebrow. “But why would you even want to go inside SOL Tec when they were--_ are _chasing after you?”

Ai chuckles and Yusaku suddenly feels a bit of unease at his gut.

“Se~cret~” sing-songs Ai, yellow eyes gleaming like stars.

“Whatever.” He rolls his eyes at the tiny creature, and only then he notices Roboppy in the meantime had washed his mug and returned with a pair of slippers. Yusaku smiles down at Robby again and sits up, letting his cleaning robot put them on his feet. “What were you two even doing before I woke up?"

“Oh.” says Ai.

“Aniki was shown me how strong his body iiiisssss!” exclaims Roboppy, the yellow lines the roomba had for eyes turning into pink hearts.

Yusaku frowns at the Ignis.

“Hey, Roboppy was the one who asked me to!”

“Roboppy doesn’t have the mind to ask such a thing and you know it.” Yusaku responds as calmly as possible. “Please stop polluting my cleaning robot with your depravity.”

_ “Depravity?!” _exclaims Ai, in a way that sounds like Yusaku had just offended him and his whole family in the worst way possible. The tiny black and purple creature fums, pointing at Yusaku, “I’ll let you know I can maleate my body as my will commands, Yusaku-chan!”

Roboppy cheers and even Yusaku seems a bit amazed at that.

“...You can?” he hesitantly asks.

“Of course!” Ai laughs, rubbing at the place where his nose would be. “Wanna see?”

Yusaku opens his mouth to argue but Ai is faster, it’s so fast indeed, that Yusaku barely manages to process what the hell just happened during those fractions of a second_ . _One time he was looking down at the small gremlin sitting on his Duel Disk and the next he was looking up with awe at the giant monster that spreaded all over his ceiling. A single large yellow eye looks down at him, squinted in a mocking fashion as three sets of thick appendages move down closer to Yusaku as if to enclose him.

Yusaku notices this and starts panicking. His body stiffens when one of them touches his back, moving up and down the blue fabric of his pajamas.

Ai is completely oblivious to his discomfort as he laughs again. “See? This is my final form.”

“Anikiiiii! You’re amazing!” Roboppy squeals with joy.

“Ahm… yes. Really-- _ impressive--” _ Yusaku curses himself internally for visibility shivering at the contact. He knows how clingy Ai can be but his body was so… _ inhuman. _ Yusaku feels no warmth or cold from the caress on his back and that just seems so _ alien _ to a body that’s been starved for touch, _ human _ touch for so many years. “Hum… can you, please remove your-- ' _ arm' _from me now?”

Ai blinks at him, dumbfounded.

“Huh? But you’re _ shivering!” _

Yusaku’s eyes widen with surprise and he raises his hand up, noticing that, yes. He is trembling all over.

“Well! You’re in luck then!” Ai continues, voice cheerful. More appendages approach Yusaku and the boy nearly jumps. “I’ve been reading up some human articles, you know, to fit in better since I will be living with you for awhile so I guess I should at least educate myself in your ways. Despite yours being a bit...uuhhh, _ deviant _from normal human standards.”

"And what is _ that _supposed to mean!?" He snaps at the large creature, momentarily forgetting how Ai has him trapped now, one of his appendages on his back and other crawling up his leg. He hisses as soon as he notices it but Ai hushes him.

"It means that the fact that you're an asshole comes from a lack of hugs!" Ai beams, the appendage (Yusaku _ refuses _ to call it a "tentacle", nope, nope, he's seen his fair share of hentais to know where this was going…), "I read humans can be like that when they don't get attention. _ Touch-starvation, _ I believe it was called. It gets worse in colder environments too!" Ai motions to the window with his head, where a thin layer of frost covered more than half of the glass, "So all you need is for someone - _ me, _the Great Ai-sama - to hug you!"

Yusaku momentatelly stops struggling to stare up at Ai, his face subtly shifting into something out of his control.

"...wha-?"

"Aniki, as always you're so smart!" Roboppy, who has been watching the whole thing silently finally speaks up. Yusaku looks down hopelessly, _ you too!? _ and _ oh god, it's too late, Ai has curtopted up already _ written all over his shocked expression. "Master Yusaku is usually a bit cold most of the time, but the weather must've _ froze _him over. The solution is to warm him up!"

"Ding - dong! Ah, see? You're already getting smart because of me!"

Roboppy giggles in response.

"No. Wait-" Yusaku starts protesting but to no avail.

Swiftly, faster than he could see, Ai had leaned down over him, the appendages on his back and lap curling around his frame. Yusaku struggles a bit, their grip isn't tight at all but the _ sensation _is what makes goosebumps stir up over Yusaku's skin. The thin material of his pajamas isn't helping either.

"Ai, I don't think this is really necessary." He deadpans.

"Nonsense! I'm just _ helping _you, Yusaku-chan! Trust me, you'll thank me later."

Yusaku frowns. He could respond to that with a lot of things; mainly, how he in fact did _ not _ trust Ai, or how he certainly didn't need _ his _ help of all people, or even complain about the cutesy honoutific he has dubbed him with now - he actually liked the ring of _ 'Playmaker-sama' _better but he'll never admit that - but in the end he decides to say nothing. Yusaku simply nods and let's his tense body relax a bit.

Ai _ beams _at him and brings down a third appendage to curl around loosely around his closed legs.

For a moment, nothing special really happens. Just Yusaku being loosely trapped in a dark cocoon of probably the most irritating A.I. in the whole planet. He opens his mouth but nothing comes out, because slowly, spreading through his body he felt _ something _.

Green eyes widen, a golden eye squints with amusement and happy chirping fills the small room.

"It's working! It's working!"

"...how?"

It's-

Ai giggles, unconsciously holding him tighter and before Yusaku's mind can even _ begin _to fully process what is going on, he lets out a contempt mewl.

_ -warm. _

"See?" Ai says, resting his head on top of Yusaku's and the boy can't really complain when the pleasant tickling sensation of warmth begins to spread on top of his head as well. Instead, he lets his eyes drift closed, humming. "Told you all you needed was a hug."

Yusaku hums again in response and presses his cheek against what he assumes to be Ai's neck. They must be quite the sight right now, with him sitting in the middle of Ai's warm embrace, happily snoozing off like a bird inside the safety of its nest as the world freezes all around.

And just like that, Yusaku seems to forgot he has important things to take care off and he must get up before it becomes too late. Just the thought makes him groan.

"Hum? What's wrong? Still too cold? I tried to keep the temperature even so you wouldn't-"

"I must leave." Yusaku mumbles, the sound coming out muffled from the place in Ai's warm body he keeps his face pressed on. And thank god Ai can't look at his face or feel Yusaku's touch on his body because the boy is sure he is pouting.

"Ah." The ignis simply says, keeping his head still on top of Yusaku's.

"Ai I'm _ serious." _Yusaku snaps, but it doesn't have any bite to it when he's positively melting against Ai.

"Then _ move away! _ I'm not stopping you." Ai says and Yusaku can _ hear _the smirk on the damn A.I.'s voice.

"You're… _ touching _me. All around."

Ai snorts. "It's called a _ hug _, Yusaku-chan."

"I know what it is! ...And stop calling me that! We're not friends!"

"Sure, sure. You're right. After this display of intimacy we just went to the next level." The ignis comments.

Yusaku pulls out at that, jerking Ai's head off of him. Ai makes a grumble complain. Yusaku is so busy looking incredibly at the huge creature surrounding him, he doesn't notice how Roboppy wasn't any longer in the room. Probably by Ai's silent request to leave, thinking this was some kind of "intimate moment" they were sharing. Ridiculous. And no, he is certainly _ not _blushing in this instant.

"I beg your pardon?!"

"Haha. It really worked on you, huh? You're acting all cute now!"

Yusaku scoffs indignantly at Ai. _ What!? _

"Let me out."

"Aww. You're pouting!"

Oh no… "Let me out!" Yusaku repeats, louder, more urgent and this time Ai complains.

The Ignis removes his appendages from around him and begins to shrink down in size. Yusaku guesses, back to the form he is used to seeing him - as the tiny black gremlin creature with patterns of purple and wide brilliant yellow eyes - but to his surprise (and further mortification) Ai simply _ shrinks; maintaining _this form, Ai is just big enough to wrap loosely around his neck, head resting on his left shoulder as his tail is still connected to the Duel Disk on the top of the counter.

"There. Good luck trying to pry me out."

Yusaku exhales a long breath of air and looks over at the clock sitting on top of the counter, taking in the time. Yusaku sighs again, louder, deeper and longer. As he expected, he lost a lot of time just cuddling--_ resting! _against Ai. There's no time to stop by Kusanagi's now, he barely has time to prepare himself for school and Ai decided to be a big baby!

Yusaku groans, ultimately making up his mind and picking up the Duel Disk, making his way to the bathroom to do something about that bad taste in his mouth.

"Fine! Have your way! But be. _ Quiet. _If you want to be my scarf then behave like one. No talking, no moving, just keep me warm."

A small chuckle comes out from the bundle of silk-like darkness and pleasant heat; "Aye, aye, Captain!"

"What did I just say?"

"Oof! Right! No talking, no nothing! Just keeping my dear human warm and happy. Gotcha!"

Yusaku hums in acknowledgement and pretends the blush on his cheeks is from the heat on his neck.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello!! Thank you so much for reading!  
This fic is a gift for Kocappu as part of the summer & winter event. I'm really proud of it! Despite believing it could be better (and proprrly edited agshhah) I am still glad I was able to finish this before the deadline and not only that, but to have reached such a length! Wow I really did _not _ plan this simple fluff fic to be this big but alas Ai and Yusaku are my favourite characters and writing their interactions brings me joy! ♡


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